Oberon microsystems, among other things, supports teams in developing ‹Internet of Things› products such as integration of sensors with cloud services and web pages.
The Internet of Things is a global network of computers, sensors and actuators connected through Internet protocols.
The Web of Things consists of RESTful Web services that measure or manipulate physical properties.
Dr. Cuno Pfister, CEO Oberon microsystems and author of Getting Started with the Internet of Things http://www.gsiot.info/
Connecting Sensors and Microcontrollers to the Cloud (published by O’Reilly, available on Amazon)
The Web of Things WoT consists of RESTful web services that bring together different services.
The Internet of Things IoT sort of kicked off around 1990 with remote robots being connected via TCP/IP. They could be configured and steered via the internet.
Around the year 2000 Oberon monitored 10’000 sensor tags in a hydro-power plant in Brazil. This helped them build their experience about monitoring services on a global scale.
Today services include integration of hearing aid users via their smartphones (bluetooth) and acoustic experts that can support with the configuration of the different hearing aid programs via web clients from their office. Also audiologists can support the fine tuning of hearing aids over the web. This comes in especially handy in places like Australia where the next audiologist may be several hours away.
But, as per usual, it’s sometimes hard to teach old horses new tricks, i.e. even companies with a proven innovation culture not always openly embrace the new technology.
IoT projects need to bridge the gap between business models of selling boxes and potentially new models like maintaining online services via the web.
For customers to rely on such a remote service it takes convincing offerings, customers that have tried similar projects themselves and failed and a web savvy CEO that knows the difficulties involved and has the willingness to overcome the typical problems.
FedEx uses IoT sensors when they transport delicate freight, such as living organisms.
Geiger counters are very popular these days in Japan. People set them up and connect them to the internet.
The Internet of Things, despite a lot of experience, is still in its infancy. Corporations tend to shy away from relying on remote suppliers in closed systems.
In contrast, makers go offensively about the Web of Things, invest in relatively low-cost hardware and invent new business models. Start-ups are good at inventing new models based on pay-per-use.
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